Wind turbines are currently being designed with blades which can attain several tens of meters. Such blades clearly present numerous technical problems, and likewise logistical problems. The terrestrial or maritime transport of these structures can prove to be problematic, especially if the accessibility of the implantation zone is difficult.
From a technical point of view, the utilization of composite materials permits the blades to be lightened, and hence the stress on the entire structure of the wind turbine to be reduced.
From a logistical point of view, the assembly of sections of blades on site permits the criticality and the cost of the phases of transport to be reduced.
It is thus advantageous to be able to transport these blades in the form of sections that are subsequently assembled at the production site.
However, producing these sections and assembling them gives rise to the problem of the assembly of components made of composite materials, from the point of view of a mechanically optimized solution in terms of mass, cost and simplicity.
Different types of connections and methods of assembly are available for components such as sections of wind turbine blades, and reference may be made here, for example, to the types of connections and methods disclosed in documents FR 2 937 687 A1, FR 2 937 689 A1 in the name of the applicant, which propose solutions for which the sections may be folded over, and FR 2 948 154 A1, which proposes a solution having fasteners at the end provided by means of fittings extending a central box of the blade sections.
These connections and methods of assembly generally require numerous components and are based, in particular, on the utilization of interface means inserted between the composite parts of the sections.
It is also known to produce junctions of components by jointing.